Owners of Rivian vehicles should be cautious about maintaining high cabin temperatures. It's been discovered that this can cause the accelerator to malfunction. This malfunction might lead to the vehicle moving slightly forward, even when no pressure is applied to the pedal. The good news is that Rivian has proactively addressed this issue. They've released an Over-the-Air (OTA) software update. According to Rivian's report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 53% of the affected vehicles had received this update by late December.
The recall impacts 7,873 Rivian R1T and R1S models from 2022. These vehicles have accelerator pedal assemblies, supplied by Precision Varionic International Sensor, that were produced outside specified tolerances.
Rivian became aware of the issue in March 2022 after receiving a customer complaint about a vehicle not entering "sleep mode." From then until December 2023, the company received 35 service requests concerning this problem. There have been no reported accidents, injuries, or fatalities associated with the faulty pedal.
Customers mostly reported issues with the vehicles not entering "auto-hold" or "park" modes as expected. In severe cases, the vehicle might move forward slightly, requiring the driver to apply the brake or press the "park" button for stabilization.
The root of the problem lies in the accelerator pedal assemblies installed in Rivian vehicles between June 10, 2021, and October 31, 2022. These assemblies contained chips with an overly strong magnetic pole. This flaw caused the pedal to move outside its normal range when cabin temperatures were high, leading the sensor to incorrectly register pedal application.
Rivian has not only released a software fix but also committed to replacing all affected accelerator pedals. The company plans to begin reaching out to owners of affected models starting February 16.
Source: Carscoops
